Stone made careful plans before attack on Stormont

Evidence has emerged this weekend that reveals the extent of the planning loyalist murderer Michael Stone put into his attack on Stormont last month.

The Observer has seen a note Stone sent to several photographers, with a picture of himself and former Ulster Defence Association chief Andy Tyrie a fortnight before his botched attack. The photograph, taken in 2000 just after he was freed from the Maze, was posted two weeks ago. In a note attached, the UDA assassin wrote: 'PS A few snaps for your files as I may be away back to the cells for a while.' Stone is currently on remand facing charges for trying to kill Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness in the Stormont attack.

Detectives have told The Observer that Stone, 51, met members of the rebel UDA south-east Antrim Brigade on 22 November and asked them for a gun. He held talks with UDA commanders alienated from the organisation at a bar in Carrickfergus, but his request was refused. 'Stone asked for a real weapon but he was told no. The UDA didn't want to know,' said one source.

The Observer can also reveal that Stone took a taxi to Stormont on 24 November and avoided security inside the estate by using a long route away from the main road up to the parliament building. The pathway is often used by senior PSNI commanders as a jogging route.

Stone, who has recently made a string of confessions to crimes his UDA comrades claim he never committed, stated recently that he believes he is going back to jail. Prior to his televised assault on the Northern Ireland Assembly building he was under PSNI investigation. The Observer has learnt that Stone was to have been arrested within days of his Stormont sortie.

In a letter to the Belfast Telegraph, dated 24 November, Stone confessed that he intended to assassinate Adams and McGuinness at Stormont. He described himself as a 'freelance, dissident loyalist paramilitary' and declared: 'On receiving this correspondence, I... will be in one of two positions. One I will be in custody... [or] two, that I am deceased.'